Almost a good headline.
The IOC boss throws her comms team under the bus. Tough day for James Pearce, the former BBC reporter who now heads up Olympic PR.
@dwnews IOC President Kirsty Coventry has lashed out at her PR team during a press conference about not being properly informed about a series of controversial topics. Coventry expressed her frustration after being questioned about Gianni Infantino's involvement with Donald Trump's Board of Peace, Germany's reluctance to host the 2036 Olympic games and a New York Times story on Russian doping.
♬ Originalton - DW News - DW News
Questions arising:
The first bounce reaction, particularly from the sports PR industry, is that this was bad form, that it showed a lack of leadership, the sign of a weak president etc.
The counter is that she was right, that she should've been briefed and what is the PR team is paid for anyway?
You then get to a to-and-fro on the relative use of media training, which I've personally taken against after years of interviewing people who have been media trained. This can be bracketed with the general rise of PR as machiavelli, the elevation of a service provider to that of master strategist. 'PR at the top table', beware people bearing 'talking points' etc. If in doubt, blame Alastair Campbell, and Peter Mandelson, just to give this blog post the illusion of topicality.